America’s legacy in Iraq

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is a group of Sunni extremist militants and they are quickly becoming one of the deadliest groups in the Middle East. This group is on a mission to carve out a Sunni state from western Baghdad onwards to the Syrian border. Fallujah, Mosul, Tikrit and Iraq’s largest oil-refinery in the town of Bayji have been captured by ISIS among other towns.

Iraq became engulfed in civil war immediately after the withdrawal of the American forces in December 2011. Now ISIS is heading for Baghdad while live-tweeting amputations and conducting public crucifixions on its way. ISIS’ attack on Mosul was so brutal that soldiers in the Iraqi army shed their uniforms and fled. The terror group is now in control of Mosul’s airport, military base and other crucial infrastructure. ISIS was able to loot $425 million from Mosul’s central bank in addition to millions from various other banks during the attack, possibly making them one of the wealthiest terrorist groups in existence. The fighting has also resulted in 500,000 civilians fleeing and the release of thousands of prisoners, along with ‘mass beheadings’.

This sudden unravelling of Iraq has raised serious concerns about the ability of the US-trained Iraqi security forces and also exposed the powerlessness of the government. These developments shouldn’t come as a surprise to many, since one of the first steps undertaken by the US government after the invasion was to dissolve Iraq’s military along with the defence and information ministries. That led to hundreds of thousands of troops suddenly out of a job. The end result being that many of these skilled officers of Saddam Hussein’s military are now active members of ISIS. Hence, this group is more cohesive and experienced at fighting than Iraq’s current military.

Iraq’s government appears unable to halt ISIS’s gains and this doesn’t bode well for their brief period of rule. As militants creep closer to Baghdad, the UN Security Council held talks last week to discuss the crisis. Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri alMaliki, has called for US strikes by drones or manned aircraft. President Obama stated that they were “looking at all the options” though the White House later clarified that boots on ground was not on the table. During the invasion of Iraq, the US troops peaked at 166,300. However, much of the American public was intentionally misled into supporting the 2003 Iraq invasion, and with over 4,500 US soldiers dead in that conflict, there is no support for returning to the region. Americans were so opposed to interfering in Syria that one congressman said the ratio of calls to his office was 488 to two against an attack that was being considered last year.

Without intervention from another country to rescue their nation, the responsibility falls on the reigning Iraqi military and government. If recent developments are any indication, they don’t appear to be up to the challenge as Iraqi forces are choosing to abandon their posts when faced with ISIS forces. The unstable post-war situation there also leaves us with an obvious question. Will Afghanistan suffer a similar fate once the US forces withdraw? After billions of dollars lost to corruption, ethnic divisions, a ragged Afghan Army hurriedly put together, and the loss of key provinces to the Taliban, it appears Afghanistan is already headed towards a similar destiny.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2014.

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